Sac River Basin - History
County Histories
Native Americans
Osage and Delaware Indian nations lived in the Sac River Basin. Osage Indians used the area mainly as a hunting
ground.
Early Settlers
The first European settlers came to this area from Tennessee around 1820 and built homes
near Bolivar, MO.
The first settlers of Cedar County arrived around 1832. They included men such as Robert Graham, Thomas English, John Crisp, and a
Mr. Crump.
Civil War
Men from counties in the Sac River Basin fought
for both the Union and Confederate Armies during the Civil War. When the Civil War broke out in Missouri, Cedar County
officials, siding with the Confederates, decided to send the county records to Arkansas
for hiding. Legend has it that Union soldiers
found the record books in a cave in Arkansas near the end of the war and brought them to Springfield
to be returned to Cedar County officials at a later date.
More information about the Civil War in Cedar County can be found at http://www.rootsweb.com/~mocedar/c_war.htm.
For a list of civil war
veterans buried in Dade and Polk Counties, go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~mocivwar/Dade.html
and http://www.rootsweb.com/~mocivwar/Polk.html.To
read civil war letters from soldiers that lived in Dade and Cedar counties, go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~modade/cw_let_p1.htm.
Mills
Before coal-burning power plants were used to
produce electricity, running water was used to turn a watermill. The energy produced by the watermill was used to
grind corn and wheat into flour. One mill
located in the Sac River Basin is Dilday Mill, also known as Finley Mill. Dilday Mill is located off of Hwy. K southeast of Greenfield,
MO on Turnback Creek. Built by Britton Finley
in 1840, the original mill ran until it was burnt to the ground during the Civil War. In 1867, a new mill was constructed at the site by
John B. Dilday and remained in operation until about 1943.
Residents of the South Township of Dade County used the Dilday Mill as their
site for voting. To view pictures of Dilday
Mill, visit the website at http://www.dadecountymissouri.20m.com/catalog.html.
Other mills located in Dade County included the Comet,
Gillispie, Greenfield, Hoyle, Hulston,
Renfro, Seybert, Sons Creek, and Speer Mills.
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